A known steering apparatus, which includes a tilt mechanism where a steering column is pivotably supported relative to a vehicle body and an operation position of a steering wheel is adjustable, is disclosed in JP2005-153849A (hereinafter referred to as Patent reference 1). According to the steering apparatus disclosed in Patent reference 1, a general connecting structure connecting links, where the links and sliders constituting a tilt mechanism are connected to one another by means of pivots (pivot screws), is disclosed. According to the known steering apparatus disclosed in Patent reference 1, a length between a column pivoting center and a column supporting point is suggested to be thirty percent or longer in terms of the length relative to a length between the column pivoting center and the steering wheel, however, the aforementioned lengths are not directly relevant to this disclosure.
According to the known steering apparatus disclosed in Patent reference 1, in a link mechanism that constitutes the tilt mechanism, the pivot screw is fitted by insertion in a hole formed on a link member so as to serve as a pivot axis, as is similar to conventional tilt mechanisms. According to the known steering apparatus disclosed in Patent reference 1, connections are established by using the pivot screws in order to assemble a drive mechanism including, for example, an electric motor. Accordingly, the number of parts and an assembling workload are large, which may result in cost increase.
A need thus exists for a steering apparatus for a vehicle, which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.